


All's Fair In Love and Board Games

by Carbonpixel



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Board Games, Competition, Established Relationship, M/M, Valentine's Day, college eating habits, snarkiness don't @ me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:20:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22721608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carbonpixel/pseuds/Carbonpixel
Summary: A snowstorm foils Axel’s plans for a memorable Valentine’s Day. Roxas rescues the night.
Relationships: Axel/Roxas (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18





	All's Fair In Love and Board Games

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Xyzcl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xyzcl/gifts).



> This fic was written for LeonFae as part of the Akuroku Discord server’s Valentine’s Day gift exchange. The prompt was: _Both of them trying to go overboard and just settling on having a night in together._
> 
> I attempted to follow the prompt, though I was only _mostly_ successful. Any indiscretions beyond the initial prompt are entirely my own. ^^;
> 
> (Hope you enjoy the fic, Leon!)

“Hey, Axel? You might want to take a look at this.” 

Seated at the kitchen table, Roxas opened the weather app on his phone and held it out over his plate of scrambled eggs for Axel to see. A snowflake symbol sat in the top-left corner of the screen, next to the current temperature and wind speed. “The weather report says that it’s supposed to start snowing later today and keep going until tomorrow morning.”

Axel speared at a clump of scrambled eggs on his own plate and rolled his eyes from across the table. “Yeah, and? Half of the time those reports are wrong, and when they’re not wrong, they’re technicalities. Nothing to worry about.”

“Maybe, but having a backup plan for tonight wouldn’t hurt.” Roxas turned off his phone’s display and nested it under the lip of his plate face-down, returning to his breakfast. “I’m not interested in going out if the roads are bad. I’m not about to die in a car crash on Valentine’s Day for the romanticism of it all.”

Axel’s eyes rolled farther back into his head. “Don’t be dramatic, Roxas. Besides, I have a big night planned. You won’t want to miss it.”

“Right. A big night that you haven’t told me anything about,” Roxas said, scooping small bits of scrambled eggs onto his fork. 

“What, you don’t believe me?” Axel placed a hand over his heart with a mock-gasp. “Roxas, it is _Valentine’s Day._ I wouldn’t leave anything to chance on such an _important_ occasion.”

Roxas gathered the remaining bits of eggs into a pile in the middle of his plate. “If you say so,” he said, a smile cracking at the edges of his mouth. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“And you’ll see it tonight, guaranteed.” Axel stood from the table, moving his cleaned dishes to the sink. He gave Roxas a kiss on the cheek before grabbing his keys from the wall hooks and pulling his bulky winter coat across his shoulders. The synthetic fabric swished against itself while his keys clinked in his hands. “As soon as my shift is over, I’m going to give you a date night to remember.”

“Sure thing. Shoot for the stars, Casanova.” Roxas waved with his fork as Axel stepped out the front door. “See you later.”

Roxas spent the rest of the day splayed across the couch, a fleece blanket draped across his outstretched legs and his computer situated neatly in his lap. The emails announcing cancelled classes popped into his inbox shortly after breakfast, leaving him free to ignore his upcoming midterm exams in favor of catching up on Internet gossip and streaming lackluster sitcoms until Axel returned home. 

He caught sight of the first few snowflakes falling outside the living room window right around noon, in between episodes of a decades-old workplace comedy. By three o’clock, an undulating layer of snow coated the bushes and sidewalks outside, and cars crawled through the bright-white haze with their headlights turned on and windshield wipers raging. A weather alert appeared on his phone’s lock screen not long afterward: _A winter weather warning has been issued for your area until 11:59 pm. Please avoid non-essential travel while this warning is in effect._

Axel burst through the front door a half-hour later than usual that evening, a biting gust of air sneaking in behind him like an unwanted guest. Snowflakes stuck to his hair and eyebrows at first, but melted in the relative heat of their shared apartment. “Jeez. I made it,” Axel said, letting out a shiver.

Roxas paused the streamed video on his laptop without looking up. “Yeah, thankfully. How are the roads?” 

“They’re… not bad.” The fabric of Axel’s coat protested as he shrugged it off and hung it on the rack next to the door. “Manageable. For the most part. I made it back okay, didn’t I?”

Eyes still trained on his computer screen, Roxas held up his cell phone, the weather alert selected and in full view on its display. “Phone says not to go out tonight.”

“Phone isn’t sentient and _can’t_ sayanything.”

“Shhh, don’t say that. You’ll hurt its feelings.” Roxas set his phone next to himself on the couch, his computer still open on his lap. “Seriously, though, it’s been snowing really badly all day. I don’t think travelling anywhere is an option tonight.”

Axel crossed his arms, his lower lip pushing slightly forward. “Roxas, I did not put in all the effort I did just to cancel plans at the last minute.”

“And _I_ didn’t put in all the effort in this relationship that I did just to have it end in us sliding into a ditch somewhere in the middle of a whiteout.” With a sigh, Roxas closed his laptop and placed it on the end table next to the couch. “What if we compromise? We stay at home for a bit, see if the weather clears up. If it does, we go out and do whatever you planned for tonight.”

Axel’s pout dimmed into a visible resignation as he considered the suggestion. “Fine, I guess we can stay home for a little bit. Just until the storm blows over.”

“Don’t sound too excited over there,” Roxas teased, smirking under the sarcasm. He got to his feet, walked over to the entranceway, and slid his hand into Axel’s palm. “Come on. I have an idea of something we could do.” His fingers laced between Axel’s as he led him forward, through the living room and into the bedroom. 

Roxas watched varying degrees of denial, confusion, and anger play across Axel’s face as he tiptoed over to the bed, feigned pulling back the covers only to kneel on the floor instead, and pulled a familiar rectangular box out from under the bed. Images of cartoon children laughing while climbing ladders and going down slides decorated the top of the game box, and the sounds of small plastic game pieces knocking against each other came from inside as Roxas turned the box so the front images faced Axel. “We could… have a rematch.”

Axel’s pout returned, this time darkened by a tinge of self-righteous anger. “No. Absolutely not.” 

“Why not? I like Chutes and Ladders.” Roxas tilted his head to the side and mirrored Axel’s expression, in jest more than malice or affectation.

“Because it’s lame,” Axel replied, putting his arms pointedly akimbo. 

“No, it’s a relic of the simplicity of childhood.” Roxas placed the game on the floor, nudging it toward Axel and sitting cross-legged on the carpet. “It’s easy to play, too. No brainpower necessary.”

Axel shook his head in exaggerated side-to-side motions, as though he was fighting to contain a toddler’s outburst inside himself. “No way. It’s not romantic at all.” 

“So? It’ll be a good way to kill time.” 

“That game hates me. We figured that out last time.”

“Maybe not. That could’ve been a fluke. We won’t know for sure until we play again.” Roxas removed the top of the game box, feeling vaguely amused as he noticed Axel glaring in his direction. He unfolded the game board and smoothed its sectioned pieces into a flat plane on the floor. “Come on, just one game. If it’s that bad, we can do something else.”

Axel stood his ground for a moment, protesting with silence and dirty looks, but acquiesced as Roxas finished placing two player figures on the starting square and tested the spinner for functionality. “Fine. One game, for you,” he said, taking a seat on the floor across from Roxas, “but only to kill time until the snow stops. Then we’re switching to my plans for the night.”

On Axel’s first turn, the spinner landed on the number two, making his player figure skip over the first ladder square on the board. Several turns later, Axel’s figure landed on the first chute square, which sent his figure back to a square in the previous row. In contrast, Roxas landed on ladder squares in quick succession. He cleared half of the game board before Axel could rise beyond the third row of squares.

When Roxas’s game piece reached the top of the board, Axel dropped his head back and groaned. “See? This game hates me. I always get all the chutes.”

“Eh, it’s the luck of the spin. You’ll have better luck next time,” Roxas said, setting his player figure back onto the first square. “Best two out of three.”

Axel’s eyebrows knit together. “You can’t be serious. Our agreement was _one_ game.” 

Roxas pointed at the thick clumps of white snow dropping to the ground outside the bedroom window, deviating from their paths only when the wind blew them into small eddies in midair. “Our agreement was to kill time until the snow stopped. It hasn’t.” 

"Roxas, I don't want to spend the night losing at a board game. It's…” Axel trailed off, his gaze falling to the floor and his fingers beginning to pick at the loops of thread in the carpet. “...it’s embarrassing.”

"Oh. Okay.” Roxas felt himself deflate. The realization that he had unduly forced a board game on Axel flashed into his mind. He silently scolded himself for being inconsiderate, and for choosing to die on the hill of Chutes and Ladders, of all things. “In that case, what do you want to do?” 

Axel shrugged, still fussing at the carpet. "I dunno. Something romantic. Something to mark the holiday."

"What, like a fancy dinner or something?"

"Well, yeah. I had a whole fancy dinner, walk-in-the-park thing planned. It was going to be cute." Rubbing the patch of carpet with a flat palm, Axel lifted his eyes to look out the window, the snow whirling with renewed vigor just beyond the glass pane. "It was going to be a surprise, too, but it looks like that point's moot."

Roxas joined Axel in staring out the window without saying a word. In any other circumstance, the scene outside would have been considered picturesque. Practically the backdrop for a cheesy romantic comedy, where the main couple is snowed in and— 

"Hold on. I have an idea,” Roxas said, clambering to his feet from the floor and rushing out of the bedroom. “Give me twenty minutes. Get ready like you’re going to dinner. Don’t come out until I give the all-clear."

Roxas closed the bedroom door behind him and raced to the kitchen. He tore open several cabinets in his haste, pulling out serving bowls and bags of snack foods held closed with plastic clips. The contents of the freezer tumbled to the floor as Roxas rooted around for his quarry, and remained on the floor until that quarry was safely placed on a ceramic plate and shoved into the microwave.

By the nineteenth minute, Roxas had the table completely set, with bowls of pretzels, potato chips, and cheese puffs in between the plate settings. In the center of the table was the main course: an entire bag of pizza bagels, arranged in the shape of a heart on a large serving plate. Roxas lit a vanilla-scented candle in the corner of the table for good measure. “Okay, you can come out now.”

Axel slipped out of the bedroom with his head down, one hand ruffling through his hair. He had exchanged his work polo and khakis for a black button-down shirt and dark-wash jeans, and wore a silver heart pendant, the one that Roxas had given to him on their first anniversary, around his neck. “I don’t know what you’re up to, but--”

Axel stopped short when he looked up, noticing the table from across the apartment. His gaze fell to the candle first, then to the snack-food spread, and then to Roxas, hunching forward in his chair and throwing up a half-ironic peace sign. “Hey.”

“Uh. Hey.” Axel took a few steps forward, his footfalls light and unsure. “You, uh… _this_ was what you thought of, back there?”

Roxas nodded, reaching for a handful of pretzels from the nearest bowl. “Yeah. I kind of slapped it together at the last minute.” He gestured at the seat across from him with an open hand. “Please, join me. I definitely can’t eat all of these pizza bagels by myself.”

Sliding into the empty seat at the table, Axel’s face flushed, his jaw hanging open. “I… wow. I don’t know what to say.”

Roxas picked up the pretzel bowl and held it out to Axel in offering. “I know it’s not the fancy dinner you wanted, but…”

“No! No, this is great. I really like the, uh, plating of everything.” Axel accepted a fistful of pretzels onto his plate, then picked out one of the pizza bagels from the top of the heart on the plate. “This is good. From the heart, literally.”

“From the microwave, actually. They might be a little soggy.”

Axel laughed, genuine and sweet. The sound made Roxas respond in kind. In an instant, the tension between them evaporated, in defiance of the snow falling outside and the board game left abandoned on the bedroom floor. 

Between idle dinner chatter and inside jokes, they each decimated one side of the pizza bagel heart, and each took out half of a full snack bowl—Roxas, the pretzels, and Axel, the cheese puffs. Roxas snagged the final pizza bagel on the plate and brought it to his lips, but paused as he began to take a bite. “Hey, sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”

“Embarrass me? You? Never.” Axel waved away the concern, then reached over the table to take Roxas’s hand. He moved to the side as he stood up, bringing Roxas with him. “Besides, I know how you can make it up to me.” 

Axel led Roxas to the bedroom, tugging gently on Roxas’s arm as he squeezed Roxas’s hand. He directed Roxas to sit on the bed with a swing of their interlocked hands, and let go only to stroke Roxas’s cheek with the side of his thumb. “I, uh. I have a last minute plan of my own,” he said, drawing close to Roxas’s face.

“Oh? What’s that?” Roxas closed the gap between them, parting Axel’s lips with his own before pulling away. “Something romantic, like you said earlier?”

Axel snickered. “Not quite. Close your eyes, and don’t open them until I give the all-clear.”

Roxas obliged. When he opened his eyes again, he saw a smug-looking Axel standing above him and a box of Uno cards held in front of his face. “Now it’s my turn to win,” Axel intoned, punctuating his statement with an over-acted evil villain laugh. “Vengeance will be _mine!_ ”

“Really, Uno? Seriously?”

Axel’s smugness grew into boisterous confidence. “Serious as a heart attack. I stack Draw Four cards, too.” He leaned in to give Roxas a peck on the lips, then settled himself on the floor, pushing the Chutes and Ladders box into the corner of the room. “Now get down here so I can salvage my pride.”

Scoffing amiably, Roxas lowered himself to the floor from his perch on the bed. “Okay, fine, but don’t cry when I beat you at Uno, too,” he said, while Axel retrieved the Uno cards from their small red box.

Axel started to shuffle the cards, a wry grin spreading across his face. “Well, I guess if I _have_ to lose, I’d rather lose to you.”


End file.
